Evangelism 101: 4 Gospel Questions

Acts 17 and the Gospel Grid for Evangelism

Well, if we know the big idea and we see that a lot of people do shut down, they get upset when we start talking about God, then let me go back to the driving question. Again, it was, how do we share the gospel effectively to the people in our lives?

Well, it all comes back to Paul's gospel grid in Acts chapter 17, the four categories, identity, purpose, suffering, and redemption. We can use these categories as a guide to shift our conversations to the gospel whenever we want.

Turning the Gospel Grid into Four Questions

So the question is, how can we do that? Well, let me show you. I'm actually gonna make it really easy for you because what I've done is I've flipped each of these categories around into the form of a question, okay?

Question number one, who are you? Who are you? Now, actually, that is a question of identity, okay? Question number two, why are you here? That is a question about purpose. Question number three, what's wrong with the world?

That's actually a question about suffering. And then question number four, how can what's wrong be made right? That's actually a question about redemption. See, friends, I want you to hear me. It's very easy to walk into any conversation with anybody if you have these questions in your tool belt.

Practicing the Questions in Real Conversations

I think probably the more difficult obstacle to overcome is just getting into the practice of using these questions, getting into the habit of doing this very thing. I lead the young adults here at Life with Pastor Chuck Williams, which by the way, Young Adults meets every Thursday.

It's going very strong, 7 p .m. For more information, go to lifebaptistchurch .com, the Young Adults page. I couldn't resist. Several months ago, we told the young adults to go out and have conversations with their non-believing friends and come to them with two of the questions, the suffering question and the redemption question.

What's wrong with the world and how can what's wrong be made right? And so they went out and they came back the following week and we just talked about it. You know what they learned? It's actually very easy to do, to just simply ask those questions verbatim.

And not only is it very easy, but almost everyone has an opinion about these things. Now, if they're not Christians, they're going to have answers to these questions that are insufficient. They don't go far enough.

Sin as the Real Problem and Christ as the Answer

Why? Because Christianity is true. And if it's true, then it's the best explanation for these questions. So non-believers have answers that sound like, you know, who are, what's wrong with the world?

Well, the problem is greed. You know, the problem is racism. The problem is politicians. The problem is lack of resources available to every single person on the globe. Okay, now those aren't legitimate issues.

I don't want you to get me wrong. They just don't go far enough. They don't go deep enough. They don't diagnose the real problem because it rests in the human condition. The real problem with the world is our sin, ladies and gentlemen.

And that's where the gospel comes in. Now, here's the great thing about all of this. Because these four questions, they all find their fulfillment in Christ when a non-believer provides a secular answer.

And that answer is insufficient. The next step, and this is very crucial, the next step is to ask them why that's the best explanation. Not to be difficult, not to offend them, not to get into an argument over it, but simply to get them to wrestle with their beliefs, to reflect on what it is that they're actually saying.

Asking Questions That Expose Worldview Assumptions

I've mentioned this before, but before I jumped into ministry, I was a public high school teacher. And every now and then after school, I had students come in and sit down and chat with me, just tell me what's going on in their life.

Well, this one particular student every now and then, he would come in, he'd sit down, he's a very bright kid, very intelligent. He was on the debate team. He was also an atheist. And he knew that I was a Christian.

And so he always loved to try to engage my Christian beliefs. Well, one day I was talking to him and I asked him, okay, you believe that humanity is basically the product of random evolutionary chance, and that human beings are basically a collection of molecules and chemical reactions.

Is that right? Now, he said, that's right. The reason I knew that, by the way, is because I listened to him. I didn't get into an argument when he started talking about his beliefs, at least initially, I didn't try to shut him down.

I just listened to what he had to say. But he said, yeah, that's right, Mr. Saleh. So I asked him the purpose question, all right? I said, okay, if that's true, then what is your ultimate purpose in life?

And how can you even discover that? And he thought about it. And he said, well, I guess I just make it up for myself. And then he went on to talk about being kind and taking care of his family, taking care of the culture, taking care of the environment.

And then I said this, if there is no God and there is no ultimate purpose to your life, because God has not created you with a purpose, doesn't it bother you that you're making it all up? And also, what happens when someone else's purpose is to do the exact opposite of what your purpose is?

How do you figure that out if everybody's making it up for themselves? Now, again, the goal is not to be argumentative. It's to get folks who reject God to just reflect on what it is that they're saying, on what it is that they actually believe.